Bloor-Yonge

Bloor-Yonge TTC Subway Station
Station statistics
Address	733 Yonge Street 33 Bloor Street East
Coordinates	43°40′12″N 79°23′12″W / 43.67°N 79.38667°W / 43.67; -79.38667Coordinates: 43°40′12″N 79°23′12″W / 43.67°N 79.38667°W / 43.67; -79.38667
Lines	Yonge–University–Spadina      Bloor–Danforth
Structure	underground
Levels	2
Platforms	side (YUS line) centre (BD line)
Other information
Opened	30 March 1954 (YUS line) 25 February 1966 (BD line)
Accessible
Traffic
Passengers (2007-08)	197,700 (YUS line) 179,910 (BD line) 377,610 Total
Services
Preceding station   TTC   Following station Wellesley toward Downsview Yonge–University–Spadina Rosedale toward Finch Bay toward Kipling Bloor–Danforth Sherbourne toward Kennedy

Bloor-Yonge is a station on the Yonge-University-Spadina line and the Bloor-Danforth line of the Toronto, Ontario, Canada, subway operated by the Toronto Transit Commission (TTC). It is located at 733 Yonge Street at Bloor Street West/East. Due to its key location as a subway transfer point below a very high-density area, Bloor-Yonge is by far the busiest subway station in Toronto, serving a combined total of approximately 377,610 people a day.

History

The station opened in 1954. It was originally simply named "Bloor", and connected with a pair of enclosed platforms in the centre of Bloor Street to allow interchange with Bloor streetcars within the fare-paid zone. When the streetcars were replaced with the Bloor-Danforth subway in 1966, the station began to be shown on maps as "Bloor-Yonge", but actual platform signs still show "Bloor" on the Yonge-University-Spadina line and "Yonge" on the Bloor-Danforth Line, following the style common in the New York subway. (Some maps over the years also showed the station with two names "Bloor" and "Yonge", although the style "Bloor-Yonge" is now in use again; both are retronyms of Bloor station.) Similarly, the automated station announcement system installed in 2007–08 refers to the station as "Bloor" on the one line and "Yonge" on the other. It is the only TTC station named in this way; all other interchanges share the same name for both lines, including Sheppard-Yonge.

The station originally featured a small retail concourse along the corridor leading from the entrance at the south side of Bloor Street. This concourse was closed and disappeared during the construction of the office building at 33 Bloor Street East in the late 1980s.

Due to its congestion, the TTC has been historically motivated to expand the station. In 1992, it took advantage of building construction over the station to open it out and widen the platforms on the Yonge-University-Spadina portion of the station. This was actually the first stage of a plan to eventually enable trains to open their doors on both sides: the tracks would next have been slewed outwards within the widened station, and a central platform built between them. This type of construction, known as the Spanish solution, is employed in the Barcelona Metro and has expanded to other subway systems, such as the Singapore MRT, the MTR Hong Kong, the Shenzhen Metro, the Guangzhou Metro, the London Underground, the Toulouse Metro, the MBTA in Boston, the New York subway, the MARTA in Atlanta, and a variant of this in the TTC's own Kennedy station on the Scarborough RT. The TTC does not currently intend to proceed with this, as it would require closing the station for many months. The Bloor-Danforth platform was not widened, due to the extra complication of construction and disruption in service stemming from it being an island platform, and so it remains heavily congested during peak times. However, the TTC included a roughed-in Spanish solution station platform on the Sheppard line level of Sheppard-Yonge station.

The TTC experimented with crowd control measures on the southbound platform of the Yonge-University-Spadina level on November 24, 2009, and made it permanent since, given that it allowed for passenger flow to improve by discouraging them from crowding near the stairs leading to the Bloor-Danforth level. These measures also helped reduce dwell times by a few seconds, such that a few more trains can enter the station during rush hour without adding capacity.^[1][2]

Subway infrastructure in the vicinity

After leaving the station northbound on the Yonge-University-Spadina line and crossing under Church Street in a tunnel, the line emerges to the surface at the Ellis Portal,^[3] mostly in an open cut, for some 800 metres going through Rosedale station.

Immediately west of the station on the Bloor-Danforth Line, the second pair of connecting tracks from the University section of the Yonge-University Spadina line join onto the running lines from the inside. Within the station, the Yonge section of the Yonge-University-Spadina line crosses above the Bloor-Danforth line.

East of the station, the Bloor-Danforth line goes into bored tunnel to cross to the south side of Bloor Street, and arrives at Sherbourne station.

Nearby landmarks

Nearby landmarks include the Toronto Reference Library, the Hudson's Bay Company's The Bay Uptown department store located with in the Hudson Bay Centre at 2 Bloor Street East, and 2 Bloor Street West.

Surface connections

• 97(B) Yonge

Northbound to Steeles

Southbound to Queen's Quay

Gallery

Bloor Station wall rendering	Yonge Station wall rendering	Bloor station was renovated to expand the platforms for heavy rider volume	During rush hours, the double platform width allows for quicker access for transfer to trains below
This Yonge Street automatic entrance is reserved for token users or Metropass/Weekly pass holders	Yonge station in the afternoon rush hour.

References

1. ^ Kalinowski, Tess (07 December 2009). "TTC crowd control now permanent". Toronto Star. http://www.thestar.com/news/gta/ttc/article/735184--ttc-crowd-control-now-permanent. Retrieved 07 December 2009. 
2. ^ Munro, Steve (27 November 2009). "The Bloor-Yonge Platform Experiment". http://stevemunro.ca/?p=2924. Retrieved 07 December 2009. 
3. ^ http://www3.ttc.ca/About_the_TTC/History/cavalcade_of_progress.jsp

External links

• Official TTC page for Bloor-Yonge Station

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